On a Thursday morning last week, Michael Atherton moves deftly through the small antiquarian bookstore he opened three weeks ago at the top of a winding staircase above Curious George Goes to WordsWorth.

The bookstore—Atherton says he is considering the name “Ten O’Clock Scholar,” but has not yet decided—is just the newest member of the rare book mecca hidden at 5 JFK St. along with a collection of dentists and the office of “Car Talk,” a popular radio show.

As Atherton navigates the back room clutter of cardboard boxes, shelves and a 200-year-old beechwood press, he pauses to point out his favorite acquisitions—a first edition of the collected works of Thomas Hobbes, a Spanish leather binding from 1831, one of the first printings of the Declaration of Independence.

Classical music plays softly from a black radio balanced precariously on the radiator in the corner.

The bookstore’s mascot, a bust of Shakespeare wearing a graduation cap, sits on a cluttered wooden table.

It’s an unlikely scene at the Square bookstore that overlooks Finagle-A-Bagel and Abercrombie & Fitch.

“There’s still life to the old Harvard Square,” says Bill Keaveny, a bookstore employee. “This building, for example, is very cool. The landlord just seemed to get an itch to have more and more bookstores.”

The Ten O’Clock Scholar

When Atherton purchased the 5 JFK St. space last May, he says he realized he would have to rent out shelves to fellow rare book collectors for an extra source of income.

Although he bought the space months ago, Atherton spent the summer in Cape Cod and just moved into the Square location three weeks ago.

He says he plans to set up the back room for rebinding poorly maintained first edition works.

The front room serves as a display space for books on sale.

Each shelf has its own color combination and distinct combination and distinct time period. Atherton’s bookshelf, for instance, is filled with the red, brown and yellow covers of 17th and 18th century American literature. Intricate gold and silver etchings decorate the leather binding.

Atherton says he often finds books for the collection in unlikely locations—estate sales, yard sales, library sales. A first edition of the collected works of Hobbes came from a public school in Iowa, for instance.

Atherton rebinds the books if necessary and tries to sell them.